Prices are high because companies are algorithmically raising rents for groups of landlords or outright buying up half of all new single family homes as large scale investments. The market is screwed because of entirely new reasons never seen before, clearly demonstrated by all the conflicting signals about what is healthy and what isn’t. This is a market failure when timely information isn’t transmitted to the rest of us, monopolies are thinly veiled, and taxpayers keep being forced into subsidizing and bailing out outdated businesses that should be left to fail.